If you're asking about saving the current work, there's quite a bit to "fix" if you're going for a photo-realistic portrait. That being said, it's already pretty good since I can see the resemblance already. Sorry if I come across as overly critical; I'm just trying to be as honest as possible.
For future improvement though, here's some comments:
Print out your reference and draw a grid of 1" squares on it with pencil. Do the same (very lightly) on your drawing paper; use the squares as references for shapes so that you can get the shapes accurately. If you're struggling to get the shapes right with 1" squares, or if your reference photo is small, then reduce the size. If you also struggle with that, then just trace out basic forms directly from the reference. Prevent yourself from consciously/sub-consciously thinking "oh this is the ____ so it should look like ___ " and drawing like that. For example, most people, when starting out with portraits, see an eye and first draw an oval with pointed ends. That's completely wrong.
The only times you should draw actual -lines- with your pencil/charcoal is when you're either doing fine details, e.g. hair, or when you're lightly tracing out blocks of shadows/forms, e.g. think of making shapes for paint-by-number. Hard lines don't exist in reality. Work on your shading/drawing technique (I can't tell which it is just from your drawings), which looks very "sketchy". It gives the feeling of "I'm not really sure what to do here, so I'll draw several lines here and hope that the composite is somewhere near where it should be." For some shading drills, try making smooth gradients and shading spheres. In addition to tortillons, you can use tissue paper(but no cream obviously) or even toilet paper to smooth out large areas of your drawing, such as cheeks. Fingers work quite well too, but they leave oils on the paper and it's really easy to accidentally transfer graphite to other papers of the paper.
Use a wider range of tones, i.e. make your blacks darker and make your highlights whiter. Do this by making several passes at shading rather than pressing harder; it's tedious but is worth it in the end. Giving your drawing more contrast makes it more vibrant and lifelike.
Specific parts:
Hair: Here's an example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLN8hX2D87I
The video skips a huge part of the long process, but here's the gist of it:
1. Lay down tones first. Use the direction of the hair as strokes, but don't make your lines very defined or hard.
2. Smooth out the shading with a tortillon. Repeat step 1 as needed to build up dark areas.
3. Using a finer tip pencil, work in the details. Don't press down hard with the pencil unless it's a very distinct hair that sticks out; just lightly draw in the direction of the hair, using an eraser to remove highlights and/or errors.
4. Repeat step 3 a gazillion times.
Eyebrows: Use the same process as hair. Block out the general shape of the whole eyebrow first, then tone, then put in details. If you compare with the reference, I think it's pretty obvious that you oversimplified the eyebrows into thin black lines.
Eyes: Some of this has to do with the poor resolution of your reference photo, but the eyes are not pitch black. Even in your reference you can see some subtle shades and several points of light reflecting off. The eyes look outlined. I'm not sure if this is because you outlined it in the first place or because of the eyelashes. If it's the first case, then get rid of that habit. If it's the second, use the method similar to hair and just bite the bullet and draw every single hair as you see it instead of just putting it all around the eye because you "know it's there".
Nose: The shape is too thin and boxy. Also, there's not enough shading to give it the feeling of roundness. I have a really good drawing reference book which shows that the nose can be simplified into three spheres, but unfortunately I can't get a scan of it right now. Sphere shading exercises will come in handy for this part.
Mouth: Again, don't outline. Define shapes more clearly (teeth look particularly "sketchy").
Everything below the chin: oversimplified. Then again, I get the feeling you were just aiming for the head (important) so I can understand why.
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